


Works like a Charm

by Engineerd



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-06 17:16:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8762008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineerd/pseuds/Engineerd
Summary: Lorelai has never had a strong grasp of her powers. Whether she wants to or not, she Charms every man she in comes into contact with into falling in love with her. In walks Luke. A story of one woman trying to avoid love at every turn, and one man who has a sidejob with FBI.





	1. Prologue

People say that Emily Gilmore was the most powerful Charmess of her age. Wherever she went, men bowed before her, leaping out of her way to place their coats on the ground before her so that her shoes wouldn’t dane to touch the ground.

_(“Oh, don’t exaggerate, Lorelai,” her mother would always say, but looked secretly pleased.)_

Emily Gilmore had her choice of careers, men, location, lifestyles, you name it. With one look, any man would immediately offer Emily Gilmore everything that was theirs. After all, that’s what powerful Charmess’s do; they can’t help it. Emily Gilmore could have been a professional model, or a singer, or movie star. Any politician she married would have been wildly successful. Emily Gilmore could easily be the president’s wife. Hell, maybe president herself, if she so chose.

Emily Gilmore didn’t want any of that. When she was twenty-two, Emily Gilmore met and married an Academic named Richard Gilmore, and they settled down quietly in Hartford, Connecticut. For out of all the things she could have had, what Emily Gilmore wanted most was a family.

_(“Mom, tell me again why you chose Dad,” Lorelai would ask as a child, night after night._

_“It was simple,” her mother would answer. “Your father was so busy reading, he didn’t look up at me until five minutes into an argument over him taking up room on a park bench. It was the first man who’d argued with me in ten years. To this day, he still argues with me. That’s how I know he really loves me, and it isn’t just the Charm.”_

_“And you aren’t worried that he loves his books more?” the child would tease._

_“He’s an Academic, Lorelai,” Emily would answer. “Of course he loves his books more.” For Academics, you see, knowledge is literally power. The more an Academic knows, the more powerful they become. While Richard Gilmore rarely expressed his power, Lorelai had seen him turn a sunny day into a thunderstorm, and had heard his voice booming from literally miles away.)_

Emily Gilmore had her first child two years after marrying Richard Gilmore - a beautiful baby girl, with her father’s eyes and her mother’s wit. Lorelai Victoria Gilmore was intelligent and independent and beautiful.

_(“Maybe she’ll take after you,” Emily would tease, holding a two-year-old Lorelai in her arms. Richard would snort as Emily adjusted the headband in the baby’s hair.)_

Lorelai grew up strong and willful. For fifteen years, Emily Gilmore had everything she’d ever wanted: the perfect family.

Unfortunately, Lorelai Victoria Gilmore crushed Emily’s dream at fifteen and a half years of age.

 

* * *

 

People would say that Lorelai Victoria Gilmore was the most powerful Charmess of her age, if Lorelai Victoria Gilmore ever actually Charmed somebody. As it was, she had successfully avoiding being in a man’s presence for any prolonged period of time ( _since Christopher_ ) since the baby was born, and she was having a lovely time with it.

Lorelai Leigh Gilmore ( _Rory, the center of her heart_ )  learned to read when she was about three years old. Her mother breathed a sigh of relief when she caught her daughter looking over the pamphlets in the lobby of the Independence Inn. An Academic, thank god.

When Rory turned five, and Lorelai was twenty-one, her boss and guardian angel Mia approached Lorelai with a proposition.

“Lorelai, dear,” Mia said, “You’ve been a maid here for a very long time, and because Julia is moved away I need a new head housekeeper. I’m considering you for the position.”

Lorelai clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh my god, Mia! That would be amazing!”

Mia smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m considering, but I have my doubts, dear.”

“...oh,” Lorelai said, deflating. “That’s fine. I know I’m young, and I’m not exactly independent enough for any kind of position at the Independence Inn. It’s fine, really.”

“Lorelai, you are the hardest worker here, and you have excellent organizational skills,” Mia said. “I have every confidence that you’d be a perfect fit. I just need to make sure you’ll be able to communicate well with everyone.”

Lorelai Victoria Gilmore perked up. “Mia, I get along great with all the other maids, and I’ve definitely been here the longest! I’ll be great, I promise.”

“It’s not the other maids I’m worried about,” Mia answered. “Lorelai, the head housekeeper needs to be able to communicate with the gardeners and the concierge, and needs to be able manage, order, and pick up supplies, if need be. Frankly, the head housekeeper will need to communicate with a lot of _men.”_

“Oh,” she said, looking down. “Yeah, no, you’re right. I can’t do that. I can just be a maid-”

 _“Lorelai,”_ Mia reprimanded. “Of course you can. You just need to get over this fear of yours.”

“Mia, you don’t understand,” Lorelai said. “I can’t help it, men just… fall in love with me, the second they look at me. You don’t want to be known for having _that kind_ of hotel.”

“You’ll just have to learn to control it,” Mia told her simply.

“I can’t.”

“You can,” Mia insisted. She took an envelope out of her back pocket and handed it to Lorelai. “Here, this is for you. The company’s buying you lunch.”

“I eat at the restaurant every day,” Lorelai said doubtfully, opening the envelope flap to look inside. “Mia, this is twenty dollars.”

“You’re not having lunch at the Inn restuarant,” Mia said. “There’s a diner that just opened in the town square, just down the block from Doose’s market, across from the high school, facing the gazebo. You can’t miss it.”

“Go out for lunch?” Lorelai questioned. She hadn’t been out for lunch in - she took Rory out for a picnic a few times this summer, but she didn’t think that counted.

“The diner is named Luke’s,” Mia said, ignoring the way Lorelai’s eyes widened. “Luke is the son of an old friend of mine, and I promised my friend I’d try to look out for him, so you’re going to go support this new business. Understand?”

“If you really wanted to look out for him you’d keep him _away_ from me,” Lorelai told her.

“Lorelai, this is very simple. You will go have lunch at Luke’s diner, and you will control your Charm while you are there. I’ll call Luke later today, and if he tells me that there was nothing extraordinary about you, then you will have the Head Housekeeper job.” Mia folded her hands. “I’ll see you in an hour and a half, Lorelai.”

 _“Fine,”_ Lorelai said, crushing the envelope slightly in her grip. “I’ll see you, Mia.” With that, she headed back to the direction of the potting shed to change out of her maid’s uniform.    

 

* * *

 

Lorelai changed into her most paint-splattered work jeans, a slightly stinky and extremely large t-shirt she’d been using for pajamas, washed off all her makeup, and threw her wallet and keys into her plain brown purse that matched absolutely nothing about her outfit. She rode her bike to the center of town, and let it rest on one of the bike racks near the high school all without making eye contact with any men. She passed one on the sidewalk as she walked to the diner, but he only stopped to stare for a few seconds as she passed before moving on.

She was about to enter what she thought was Luke’s when she saw a sign declaring _William’s Hardware_ above the door. She stopped, back up, and looked at the sign above the window around the corner. _Luke’s._ She looked at the door. _William’s Hardware._ She looked through the glass of the door. There were people eating at tables, so she cautiously opened the door, only jumping a little when the bell rung.

There was a man, a waiter maybe, serving a couple sandwiches nearby when she came in. “Afternoon,” he greeted her as he turned away from the served table. “Just one?”

“Just one!” Lorelai yelled, a little too loudly. She was way too nervous for this, but it was too late to back out now. “Just one and that’s the way I like it!”

“O-kay,” the guy said. “Well, sit anywhere you-”

“I’ve got it!” Lorelai exclaimed, scrambling away from him and sitting herself down in the farthest corner of the diner.

The guy unfortunately followed her, grabbing something from the counter on his way. “Here’s a menu,” he said, his voice and mannerisms still casual, and Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief. That was normal restaurant stuff, right? Unfortunately, then he leaned in a little closer, and started, “Can I get you anything to-”

“NO!” Lorelai shouted, a little panicked and definitely too loudly, but this was drifting dangerously close to Charmed territory, men offering her anything she could want.

The guy just frowned at her, though. “Okay, okay, jeez, no drinks, got it. I’ll be back in a few for your order, okay?”

Lorelai let out a long breath. Okay, good, that was just drinks, good. This wasn’t going too badly, she’d practically had a whole conversation with a man and he wasn’t Charmed at all. In fact, it might even being going well. Lorelai picked up the menu and began reading, humming to herself under her breath happily.

As promised, the guy came back a couple of minutes later, fresh white notepad and pencil in hand. “So, what’ll it be?” he asked. He didn’t even try to small talk!

Lorelai let herself smile at him, deciding it was worth the risk, since she totally had this whole Charm thing under control. “Hi!” she said. “Can I have a cheeseburger and fries?”

“Yup,” he answered, glancing at her. “That it?”

“And a coffee,” she decided.

“Coffee it is,” he said. “You need anything else, I’m Luke, feel free to call.” 

“Call?” Lorelai echoed, eyes widening. “What? Why would I call you?” Oh no. The smile was a mistake. She looked down and away from him, towards the sidewalk out the window. “I don’t think I’ll be calling,” she mumbled.

There was a pause. “That’s..fine,” Luke said from behind her. “Your burger will be about ten minutes.”

Phew. And there she was, alone at a restaurant, for ten whole minutes -

SLAM.

Lorelai jumped, wheeling around in the direction of what was apparently a very grumpy Luke. “Here’s your coffee,” he said, with a tone Lorelai was pretty sure was sarcasm, but he poured coffee in the large mug all the same. “Enjoy.”

“I will,” Lorelai said, a little offended. 

“Good.”

“Fine,” she retorted, picking up her mug a taking a huge gulp. “Ow,” she said, almost immediately. “Oh my god, _ow.”_

“Careful,” Luke said casually, and then he _smirked_. “It’s hot.”

“I just burned my tongue, you ass,” Lorelai said.

“It’s coffee, it’s supposed to be hot,” Luke said. He had the coffee pot in one hand, and stuck the other on his hip and said, “Look, do you have a problem with me, or something?”

“No,” Lorelai spat. “Do you have a problem with me?”

He narrowed his eyes. “No,” he answered.

“Good.”

“Fine,” Luke said bitterly, and started walking away again.

“Wait!” Lorelai called after him. “Can I have an ice water?”

“Oh,” Luke said. “So now you want a drink.”

She glared. “I need some ice water for my _burned tongue.”_

He pointed a finger at her. “You brought this on yourself.”

“You served me boiling water!” she cried.

“What I served you was hot coffee.”

“Oh, so this is what passes for ‘coffee’ nowadays?” Lorelai asked, using air quotes. “Frankly, this is the worst ‘coffee’ I’ve ever had in my entire life, Duke. And I’ve subjected myself to some truly terrible things in the name of caffeine.”

“My name is Luke,” he hissed. “I told you that quite literally two minutes ago. It’s the name of the diner.”

“Well, since we’re busy calling things things they’re not!” Lorelai declared, gesturing broadly to her coffee cup. 

Luke rolled his eyes. “I gotta go check on your burger.”

“And my ice water!”

“Sure,” he said as he walked away, with a tone that gave Lorelai little doubt that she would not be getting any water anytime soon.

She humphed to herself, crossing her arms to hold herself together as she turned to stare back out of the window. She was practically shaking with her combination of nerves and adrenaline, but oh, she thought she would never be able to go out in public again. After Christopher, after Rory was born - she’d been giving birth in the hospital and three men (one with a broken hip) had offered to marry her, and she’d thought that she’d never be able to go out of her house without turning men into slaves, but here she was, and Luke hated her.

Lorelai smiled out over town square. _Luke hated her._

As promised, he came back several minutes later with a plate of her burger and fries, and a cup of almost aggressively lukewarm water. He glared at her as he put the plate down, daring her to say something about it.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows, staring at him as he put the water down. They held eye contact for about two seconds - his eyes were deep blue, and they were very pretty, even though the deep bags under his eyes made him look exhausted. He’s the one that broke the eye contact as he walked away, leaving Lorelai staring at the back of a beat-up green baseball hat.

The water was on the warm side of room temperature, but the fries were good, just the right degree of crunchiness on the outside and soft potato-y goodness on the inside. The burger was good too - thoroughly cooked, but not dry, with the cheese perfectly melted. Even if the coffee was terrible here, the diner wasn’t completely without hope.

She was about halfway through the meal when she picked up the glass ketchup bottle to drizzle a little more over her fries. The bottle slipped from her fingers just as she upended it over her fries, causing a huge glob to land on the table and the bottle to roll away. She made a grab for the bouncing bottle, but it rolled away from her and fell onto the diner floor where it loudly exploded into a million pieces, sending ketchup and glass shards everywhere.

“Oh, no,” Lorelai said, grabbing a fistful of napkins from the retainer and dropping them all over the table, saving the last one to dab uselessly at her ketchup-soaked shirt. “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” she chanted as Luke jogged out of the kitchen and stopped dead at the end of the counter, seeing Lorelai in all her mess.

“What did you do?” he asked, his face turning scarlet. It kind of matched the new floor.

“This was an accident,” she said. “I dropped the ketchup bottle.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a long sigh. “You kamikazed my diner.”

“I’m sorry,” she offered. “It really was an accident. I’ll clean it.” She reached for more napkins, dropping them over the glass and ketchup-covered tile.

“No, don’t,” he said wearily. “I’ll get the broom, or the mop or - I’ll just get it.”

“I’m so sorry,” she repeated, trailing after him as he went to find cleaning supplies. “Please, let me.”

“Sit back down,” he snapped. “You’re tracking ketchup all over the place.”

“No, I’m not, it just got on my shirt, not my shoes.” Lorelai followed him back towards the kitchen. “I’m a really good cleaner, I do it for a living, I-” Luke stopped walking suddenly, and she bumped into Luke’s back getting ketchup on him too, and as she tried to catch her balance she accidentally knocked over the coffee pot that was sitting on the counter’s edge, and Luke turned towards her and got a lap full of hot coffee.

Lorelai caught the coffee pot before that broke, at least.

Veins were starting to pop out of Luke’s neck. “The diner has been open for _four days,"_ he hissed.

“I am so sorry-” Lorelai started.

“Get out.”

“What?”

“Get the hell out of my diner!” Luke roared suddenly.

Lorelai took a few steps back. “I said I was sorry! The ketchup was my fault, but you really shouldn’t leave the hot water sitting on the edge like that.”

“It’s not hot water! It’s coffee!” he shouted, snatching the empty pot away from her.

“Let’s agree to disagree,” Lorelai said.

“You come into my diner, yell at me, insult my food, make a huge mess, and you expect me to agree with you?”

“I did not insult all your food,” Lorelai told him. “You were a little skimpy with the cheese on the cheeseburger, but other than that-”

“GET OUT!” Luke shouted.

“Fine!” Lorelai said, jumping back towards her table, ignoring the crunch of glass under her feet as she grabbed her purse again. She pulled out the twenty dollars, walked back over to Luke and slammed the money into his chest. “Mia says hi,” she told him, eyes narrowed, ignoring the way she could feel his heart pounding around the edges of the dollar bill.

Luke snatched the money from her and took a step backwards. “Consider yourself banned,” he said darkly.

“Good,” Lorelai said. “I wouldn’t want to come back here anyways!”

“For life!” he snapped.

Lorelai slammed the door on her way out.

 

* * *

 

Lorelai had hoped she could sneak back around the Inn to the potting shed so she could change, but unfortunately Mia caught her in the driveway as she was getting off her bike.

“Lorelai, how was-” Mia started, and then caught sight of her shirt. “Oh my goodness, are you alright?”

“It’s just ketchup,” Lorelai dismissed, and then joked, “You should see the other guy!”

“What on earth happened?”

“Ah,” Lorelai said. “Well, I had lunch at Luke’s, and it was kind of a success, depending how you look at it. The coffee was terrible, but the food was pretty good.” She took a step backwards. “And he’s definitely not in love with me. I’ve got the Charm under control after all.”

“M’am,” a delivery boy approached Mia. “I need you to sign for these.” He held a clipboard up to Mia, and glanced at Lorelai in passing, doing a double take at the sight of her.

Lorelai braced herself. She didn’t Charm Luke, and she wasn’t going to Charm this guy. “It’s just ketchup,” she told him. “I’m not a murder victim, I promise.”

There was a second - a looong second - where the delivery boy didn’t say anything, and for a second she thought his eyes glazed over, but then he shook his head and snapped out of it. “I just need a signature for these flowers,” he said, directing his comment at Mia again.

Mia signed the clipboard, and then turned back to Lorelai, a small smile on her face. “I knew you could do it,” Mia said.

“Thank you,” Lorelai said. “If you talk to Luke, can you tell him I’m a little bit sorry?”

“A little bit?” Mia echoed.

“Yes, a little bit,” Lorelai said. “I’m mostly mad. I was so nervous about the Charm that I may have gone a bit too far in the other direction, but...man, that guy is a -” She stopped herself. “Don’t tell him any of that. Just the sorry part. Actually, don’t tell him anything. I know he’s a friend of yours, Mia, but he and I might be mortal enemies now.”  

Mia sighed. “Well, I’m glad you have your confidence around men back.”

  
Lorelai laughed. “Yes, I am very confident that Luke will never fall in love with me.”


	2. Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luke is the same age as Rachel and Bootsy, one year older than Liz, three years older than Lorelai and Sookie, nine years older than Caesar, and nineteen years older than Rory and Jess.

Lorelai Victoria Gilmore was twenty-two and had lived in Stars Hollow for five years before the first bad attack happened. 

It honestly caught her off guard a little. In her parents’ world, chock-full of powerful people, attacks and power grabs were common. Here in Stars Hollow, filled with regular people with no special powers of note, there weren’t a lot of people who thought they’d try their hand at force. The most powerful person in town was Kirk, for god’s sake, who was a Copycat, and he only used all the copies of himself to work 5 minimum wage jobs at once. 

(Well, actually, the most powerful person in town was probably Lorelai, but know one really knew that. I’ve got a little Charm, she would tell people, because she only ever used it a little. She was the Head of Housekeeping at the Independence Inn, she didn’t have big aspirations. Rory might eventually grow to be more powerful as an Academic, but she was just a kid, six years old. Six-year-old Rory had a party trick of turning pebbles into paper so she could read more, but that was about it.) 

And overall it really wasn’t an attack on Stars Hollow, just some guy on the run from Hartford who got cornered by the Feds here. A bunch of places by the gazebo got struck by lightning, and the whole town had lost power by the time somebody tackled the criminal and he went down. The worst part was that Rory was over at Lane’s house at the time - Lane’s house, right in the center of town night to the lightning fight, and the state police wouldn’t let her through to the town green. 

“My kid’s in there!” Lorelai cried, pointing. “My kid is over at Kim’s Antiques!” But the police wouldn’t let here through. In her desperation, she tried to use her powers-

-Except she was too freaked out to Charm anyone, so she had the most stressful fifteen minutes of her life waiting outside that police barricade. They told her to wait inside, because all the lightning had whipped up a fierce thunderstorm, but she stood out with the police anyways, waiting with baited breath for her daughter. 

But crazy lightening guy was taken down, and it was declared safe for everyone on the town green to come out and everyone out of the town green to come in, and Lorelai sprinted towards Kim’s Antiques and as she rounded the sign Mrs. Kim let Rory sprint out, and they collided on the sidewalk by the sign next to the fence. 

“Mom!”

“Rory!” she cried, picking up and twirling her daughter around. The rain had fallen in intensity to a light mist. “Oh, thank god you’re safe.” 

“Of course I’m safe,” Rory said, giggling. “Even the bad guy would be afraid of Mrs. Kim. I was worried about you.” 

“About me?” Lorelai asked, settling Rory on her hip. Rory was six, and really getting too big to be carried, but she seemed to enjoy it all the same. “I’m the mom! I’m the only one who’s allowed to worry!”

All over the square similar reunions were happening. There were a couple ambulances as well, and Lorelai’s eyes flicked around to all of them to make sure that her friends were all accounted for. Her gaze only stalled on one ambulance scene - she recognized a soaking-wet Luke, who she hadn’t given much thought to since their dreadful meeting that year. Luke, wrapped in a shock blanket, seemed to be yelling at an EMT before breaking away to collide with the embrace of some red-headed girl.    


“I don’t think that’s a real rule,” Rory said, retaking Lorelai’s attention. 

Lorelai smiled down at her daughter. “Of course it’s a real rule. Moms worry, and daughters have fun. Do you think I’d give you fake rules?” 

“I guess not.”

“You guess not? You know not! Come on, I want to go thank Mrs. Kim.”

Despite the ambulances, no one was seriously hurt in the attack that day. 

 

* * *

Liz has always been a somewhat frustrating Fortune Teller. Luke remembers the first time Liz told him about a vision, even though he’s not sure she does. He was eleven years old, and Liz was ten, and they were at their mother’s wake. 

“Dad’s gonna die soon, too,” Liz confided in him, in a voice too low and detached for her young age. 

“What?” Luke asked then. His first instinct was to comfort her. “No. No, he’s not. He’ll be around to take care of us, forever. Lizzie, I promise.” 

She shook her head. “No, Luke, I Saw it.” 

Luke’s blood ran cold as he picked up her meaning. “You Saw it?” he asked, voice cracking. Their mom had been a Fortune Teller, and he knew visions always came true. “When?” he asked dubiously, his heart in his throat. 

Liz paused. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” he echoed. “What do you mean, you don’t know? How do you not know?” 

“Well, I didn’t exactly see a  _ date,”  _ Liz said, pulling away from her brother. “That’s not how it works.” 

“Mom always knew,” Luke said. He knew it was the wrong thing to say almost immediately as the words left his mouth. 

“Well, Mom’s dead, isn’t she?” Liz cried, causing people to stare at them as she stomped away.    


And the thing was, she wasn’t wrong. Dad died ten years later. 

About once a week, Liz would a just have a vision like that. The vast majority of them were useless things (“Beanie Babies are going to be so popular! We should stock up!”  _ “What the hell is a beany baby?” he asked _ ), often about people they didn’t know (“Schwarzenegger is going to be governor!”), and there was never a date to go with them. 

A few were interesting - “My son’s going to be an academic,” Liz declared once when she was fifteen, and standing in the doorway of his bedroom. “Luke! Luke, you’re not listening.” 

Luke impatiently shoved his headphones down around his neck, reaching over to lift the needle off his record player. “Geez, can you knock? I’m busy.” 

“My son is going to be an-”

“Academic, I heard,” Luke huffed. “And just how many children are you going to have?” 

“As many as I want,” Liz said, suddenly offended, and flounced away. Jess did turn out to be an Academic, though. 

A few were foreboding. “The Independence Inn is going to burn down, Mia,” Liz warned, right before she left for New York. “I would get extra insurance.” 

When Luke was twenty-four and Liz was twenty-three, she called him one Friday night around 11:40 PM. “Big brother!” she said immediately when he picked up the phone. 

“Hey, Liz,” he said wearily. “What if I’d been sleeping?” 

“You weren’t sleeping,” she dismissed. “You’re too nervous about the grand opening tomorrow.” 

Luke sighed. “I’m exhausted, though. Why can’t I sleep?” 

“You just need to chill,” Liz said. “Luke, I had a vision about you. You’re going to meet the love of your life!” 

“Great,” Luke said flatly. “When?”

“Who knows,” Liz answered. “It’ll be exciting and dramatic, though.”

“Oh, perfect,” he said sarcastically. “Just what I need right now. Did you See what she looked like?” 

“Eh,” Liz answered enigmatically. “I’d know her if I saw her.” 

Luke sighed again. “Anything?”

“She was tall,” Liz answered. 

“Oh,” he said, and then added as an afterthought, “Rachel’s tall.” 

“It’s not Rachel,” Liz said, sounding way too certain for his liking. “She didn’t deserve you, anyways.”

“Are you just saying that because you don’t like her?” 

He could tell Liz was making a face. “She’s so skeptical.”

“That’s what the rest of the human race calls realistic,” Luke answered. 

“I’m pretty sure it’s not Rachel,” Liz said, but she was less sure of herself this time. “Besides, I saw you two meeting.”

“Maybe we’re meeting when she comes back.”

Now Liz was definitely rolling her eyes. “Ok, whatever you say. Want me to go so you can go back to staring at the ceiling and pretending to sleep?”

“That’s probably best,” Luke said. “Thanks for the call.”

“Good luck with the opening tomorrow.”

“Night.”

“Goodnight.”     

 

* * *

Luke was at the end of his first and only year of college when he was first approached by the FBI, who pulled him out of his Finance 102 lecture just to give their recruitment pitch.

“We could really use agents like you in the field,” one of the two FBI recruiters lectured. “Your abilities are quite uncommon, and would be indispensable as a law enforcement.” 

Luke crossed his arms and frowned at both of them. “How did you find out about me?” 

“Your student-athlete screening test,” the agent answered. “It normally just screens to make sure that all competing have natural ability only, but your magic is so unique it triggered a special response.” 

“Ah,” Luke said. “Look, I don’t have any interest in joining the FBI or any other law enforcement agency, alright?” 

The two exchanged a glance. “That’s fine,” the second one said, pulling something out of his pocket. “Here’s our card, if you change your mind.” 

Luke threw the card away as soon as the two agents had turned their backs. 

That summer, his dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Luke dropped out of college to stay home and help his dad with the hardware store, and he never looked back. 

 

* * *

December, later that year after the attack on the green, was the next time Lorelai’s rivalry with her arch nemesis reared its ugly head. Rory was playing an angel in the town’s Christmas pageant, and Lorelai, eager to help out in any way she could, was roped into the town decoration committee. 

“Lights everywhere, got it,” Lorelai said. 

“Ha!” the closest Kirk exclaimed. There were at least three Kirks in various positions around the square, all hanging Christmas lights in between buildings and street lamps. “Like they would stick a newbie like you on lights?” 

“I’m sorry, Lorelai, but he’s right,” Taylor said, looking up from his clipboard. “Besides, Kirk can really only work with himself. You’re on garland duty.” He gestured to a giant cardboard box on his right, which was filled with a healthy mix of tinsel and faux-evergreen strands.    


“Okay, okay,” she replied, circling the box. “Not as flashy, but I can still be creative with this. Garlands everywhere, got it.” 

The box was too heavy for her to move at first, so she left the box at Miss Patty’s and just grabbed an armful of green strands to wrap around the railings of the gazebo, taking advantage of her position to make funny faces at Rory. Rory was very adorable, lined up with all the other first-grade angels in their little choir, and would break position every now and then to make a face back. 

After the gazebo came the streetlights around the square, and there was still more tinsel after that to line the windows of the buildings on town square. Lorelai did Miss Patty’s first, and then the fence in front of Kim’s Antiques, and then skipped over the high school to do the window’s at Andrew’s bookstore, and then Doose’s, and then the little plate shop, and she was finally nearly the end of the practically-bottomless garland box when she started doing the windows at Luke’s. 

She had used up all the gold and silver, so she was placing dark green fake-evergreen strands when a loud voice announced behind her, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Lorelai turned around in time to see Luke’s face fall when he recognized her. “Oh, god, it's you,” he said, with slight horror. “I banned you.”

“Not god, just Lorelai,” she replied lightly. “Relax, I wasn’t going in the diner.” She brandished her garland at him for evidence. “Just doing my town duty from the very public sidewalk.” 

“I repeat my first question,” he said. “What the hell are you doing with my very privately owned diner?”

She rolled her eyes. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m decorating.” 

“Not here, you’re not,” Luke told her. 

“Yes here, I am,” she quipped. “I have to do the whole town square.” 

Luke walked towards her, stopping at the edge of the window frame and reaching for one end of the garland strand to pull off all her hard work. “No, you’re not!”

“By the power invested in me by the town decoration committee, yes I am!” She grabbed the other end of a garland. “Stop that!”

“You stop it!” Luke said. “You can’t put that stuff on my diner!” 

Going for broke, Lorelai’s face dropped into a pout as she infused her voice with a healthy amount of Charm. “Please, Luke?” she said softly, tilting her head and sticking her chest out a little. “For Christmas?”    


Luke stared at her. His nose was wrinkling, which was a little weird, because usually guy’s faces relaxed when they went under the Charm. “Oh, no,” Luke groaned. “Are you trying to flirt with me?” 

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, she’d been caught. “What? No!” Lorelai squeaked, backpedaling furiously. “Are you kidding me, Mr. Grinch? Who, by the way, does not respect the authority of the Town Decoration Committee, even though he lives in town.”

“Come back with a warrant,” Luke replied. He sounded smug. “Until then, consider yourself banned from this section of sidewalk.”

“You can’t ban me from the sidewalk!”

“And you can’t decorate my diner! It’s not even Christmas!”

“It’s December 13th!” 

“Exactly! Christmas isn’t for weeks!” 

“Listen here, Scrooge,” Lorelai said seriously. “If I don’t do well on garland duty this year, I’m never going to get moved up to exciting things like lights or costumes or-”     


They were interrupted by a bell tinkling noise, as a woman bounced down the steps of the diner and into Luke’s side. She had red, curly hair, and was easily as tall as Lorelai, which is something that few women could say, and she looked practically enchanting in the evening light. “Hey babe,” she said to Luke, who relaxed at her touch. “What’s going on?”

Something clicked in Lorelai’s mind - of course, Luke was in love with his girlfriend, that would definitely increase resistance to the Charm. No wonder it didn’t work, she hadn’t been trying  _ that  _ hard. “Hi!” she said quickly. “I’m Lorelai. I’m supposed to decorate all the windows in town square for the Christmas pageant.” 

“Ah,” the beautiful redhead said. “The Stars Hollow Christmas pageant. Did you know they’ve been using the same doll for baby Jesus since the 1960s?” 

Lorelai grinned. “I didn’t, but that actually explains so much.”    


“I’m Rachel,” she said. 

“Lorelai. It’s so nice to meet you. Do you think it would be okay if I could...?” she shook her end of the green garland. 

“No,” Luke insisted stubbornly. 

“But-”

“No!”

“Aw, come on,” Lorelai pleaded, mostly in Rachel’s direction. “For Christmas?”

Rachel turned to Luke and smiled. “Yeah, Luke, for Christmas?”

“You’re Jewish,” he accused his girlfriend, and then rounded back on Lorelai. “And  _ you _ can come back on the 23rd. Until then, it is too early for Christmas. Come on Rachel, you must be freezing. Let’s go back in.” He grabbed Rachel by the hand and started the process of dragging her back into the diner. 

Rachel looked back over her shoulder and mouthed the word  _ Sorry,  _ shrugging apologetically. 

Lorelai nodded back, watching as they went back inside. Luke noticed her staring and gave her the finger behind Rachel’s back. 

She stuck her tongue out in response and sourly stuck her garlands back in her box, fully intending to rush back to Taylor to see if the Town Decoration Committee could issue warrants. That would show Luke.    


Unfortunately, Taylor said no, but she did get a permanent position on the Committee, which meant she got to yell at Luke at least once a month. It was a fun outlet. 

 

* * *

Luke was twenty-five the second time he was approached the FBI. 

It had been a relatively ordinary afternoon in the diner. The first sign of any trouble had been the wind, really, suddenly strong enough to flap the wooden  _ Luke’s  _ sign outside, the sign of a sudden pressure drop. After that, the storm clouds started rolling in quickly. It had only just started raining when they heard the first clap of thunder, echoing and distant. 

At the counter, Bootsy groaned. “Great,” he said. “I’ve gotta keep the newsstand closed for the rest of the day.”

“That’s what you get for not having a real business,” Luke quipped. 

“Fuck off, that was my father’s business,” Bootsy retorted, giving Luke the finger. “You’re doing the exact same thing.” 

“Maybe you haven’t noticed, this is a diner now?” Despite their going-on-twenty year rivalry, Luke appreciated Bootsy because they never had to skirt around the whole dead dad thing. In fact, the phrase he would use to describe Bootsy would have to be  _ ‘brutally honest’ _ with the emphasis on brutal. 

Bootsy grunted in response. Luke carefully placed a mug in front of him and filled it with coffee. “Another batch today?” Bootsy whined. “You should really pay me for being your taste-tester.” 

“Shut up, you get free coffee,” Luke ordered. He watched carefully as Bootsy took a sip. 

Bootsy shrugged. “It’s fine.”

“Just fine?” Luke repeated irritably, reaching his hand out to take the mug back. 

Bootsy held it close to his chest protectively. “Yeah, Luke, it’s fine. It’s fine coffee. Perfectly acceptable. I don’t know where this obsession for perfect coffee came from-”

“Some of us like being good at what we do,” Luke growled. 

“Hey!” 

They were interrupted by another clap of thunder, this one outrageously loud. Bootsy swiveled around on his stool, so they both could look out at the rain coming down in sheets. “Shit,” Bootsy said. “I hope this passes quickly.” He squinted at the window. “Who the hell’s driving over the town green?” 

Luke did a double take out the diner window, and sure enough there was a little blue car basically on a collision course with the gazebo. As he watched, several police cars raced into the square after him, sirens blazing, surrounding him on all side from the square. 

The first lightning strike that came from the blue car hit one of the small trees next to the gazebo, which promptly split in half. The lights started flickering. 

The group of high schoolers seated at the windows started shrieking. And squealing, and finally screaming. 

“EVERYBODY CALM DOWN,” Luke shouted over the din. “HEY!” They gradually quieted. “Everybody get back here, away from the windows.” 

“You got a back room?” Bootsy asked. “Think it’ll be safer?”

“Yeah,” Luke answered, nodding, gesturing in the directions of the bathrooms and store room. “That’s a good-” he paused as he looked at the store room, remembering the last time he was in there. “Oh,  _ goddamn it _ .”

“What?” Bootsy asked. 

“We’re out of sweet pickles,” Luke said. 

Bootsy’s jaw dropped open. “Are you kidding me right now?” he asked incredulously. He started shepherding the teenagers to the back. 

“No, you don’t understand,” Luke said. “Caesar’s gone to grab more pickles.”

“You’re out of your damn mind,” Bootsy grumbled. “You’re out of salad, you’re out of pickles, you have more pressing issues!” He reached for Luke to drag him in the direction of safety.    


Luke pushed him away. “No, Caesar’s this teenager I just hired. I sent him to Doose’s to grab more pickles. I gotta call Taylor to-” he reached for the phone. 

Another strike of lightning illuminated the square, landing on a telephone pole. All of a sudden, the lights in the diner flickered out completely. The teenagers started screaming again. 

Leaving Bootsy to wrangle the 14-year-olds, Luke picked up the phone in vain. There wasn’t even a dial tone. Frustrated, he slammed the phone back down the the receiver and ran toward the stairs to grab his coat. Bootsy caught his arm as he was zipping up the black jacket. 

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, Danes?!” he shouted.

“I got a really bad feeling about this,” he said, shrugging Bootsy’s hand off. “Besides, he’s Gypsy’s friend’s nephew or something like that. If something happens to him, Gypsy will kill me.”

“You’re insane!” Bootsy yelled as Luke pushed his way out the front door. 

It was even louder outside - the rain was coming down so hard each drop stung his hands, and the sky was almost a constant roar of thunder. Luke ducked low against the wall as he watched a police car get struck by lightning. He could make out four officers in the square, and he could hear more sirens approaching from far away. At his fastest duck-sprint, he managed to get to Doose’s in about a minute. 

The door was thankfully unlocked, and Luke entered and rounded the shelves to the produce section in the back until he turned and saw himself staring down the barrel of a gun.      


“Whoa, whoa, Taylor, it’s me!” Luke said, throwing his hands in the air. He shook his head to allow his hood to fall down. “Don’t shoot, it’s Luke.”

“Luke!” Taylor yelled, dropping the gun to his side. “What are you doing? You almost scared me to death!”

“I’m looking for Caesar,” Luke said. “He’s seventeen, he’s not from Stars Hollow, he lives in Bristol, I think, but I hired him and I just sent him here for pickles...”

He watched as a look of recognition crossed Taylor’s face. “Oh, that young man was with you?” Taylor asked. “He was here about ten minutes ago. Left before the storm started.” He gestured to the window with the hand holding the gun. 

“Geez, would you put that down?” Luke asked, heart sinking. “He isn’t here?”

“He’s not here,” Taylor confirmed. 

“God Damnit,” Luke swore, a feeling of panic rising in his sternum that was usually reserved for when Liz called to ask about how serious Jess swallowing inanimate objects actually was.  “That’s just - shit. Okay, I’ve got to find him.”

“You can’t go back out there,” Taylor objected. “Luke, be rational. You’re going to get yourself killed.”    


Luke stared back on the front windows of Doose’s market. “Well Taylor, if he’s not at the diner, and he’s not here, then he’s probably in the middle of the goddamn firefight!”

“Luke-” Taylor called after him, but he was already slipping out the door. 

There was a part of him that was screaming  _ what are you doing, the most powerful person you’ve ever used your magic on Kirk, you can’t take this guy,  _ but there was a much bigger part of him screaming that there was a kid missing on his watch, and he wasn’t about to let some jackass shoot lightning all over the town square. If it wasn’t raining, the gazebo might be on fire by now.    


So Luke sprinted from Doose’s, past the police who shouted after him, and watched in almost slow motion as the jackass saw him coming and pointed at him, a bolt of lighting generating and shooting towards Luke’s chest.    


Luke reached his hand out in response, and watched as the lightning fizzled into nothingness. 

Jackass’s eyes widened, and he seemed to be a one-trick pony because he mostly just stood there gobsmacked as Luke tackled him into the muddy ground. Luke was a little relieved, to be honest, that his own powers seemed to be working just fine. He knew he could intimidate Kirk into submission, but this proved it. He could Neutralize anyone. 

He overshot the tackle a little bit, underestimating how far they would slide due to all the mud from the influx of water. He and Jackass both wrestled each other for control, but Luke eventually gave him a good knee to the gut which stunned the idiot long enough for Luke to flip him over onto his stomach, sitting on him and pinning his hands behind his back. 

“Where are the hostages?” Luke barked. 

Jackass struggled underneath him, but didn’t have the strength to throw Luke off. “What hostages?”

The police officers finally came then, arresting Jackass with magic-neutralizing handcuffs and commending Luke for his bravery.  As the rain lightened, a few ambulances came rushing into the square. Luke had to assure one of them he was fine, it wasn’t hurt at all, it was just mud, really. They insisted on checking him over, just to make sure he hadn’t been electrocuted, when Caesar finally ambled over. 

“Caesar!” Luke shouted, trying in vain to pull away from the EMT shining a light in his eyes. “Where the hell have you been? I thought this maniac had taken you hostage!”

The teen had the decency to look vaguely guilty. “I was in the twinkle-light store,” he admitted. 

Luke’s eyes narrowed. “I took down the biggest bozo to fly through this crazy town for years, and you were in  _ Harry’s House of Twinkle Lights?!” _

Caesar looked awed. “You took down that guy looking for me?” he asked. “You’re one dedicated boss, man.” 

Luke made a strangled noise of rage. The watching EMT looked concerned. 

Caesar held up a plastic  _ Doose’s _ bag. “I got the pickles,” he said timidly. “Am I fired?”    


“Get back to the diner,” Luke snapped. 

“Yes, sir!”

He sighed as he watched Caesar scurry back in the direction of the diner. “Teenagers,” he sighed to the EMT, who smirked. Luke immediately scowled back. 

“Luke Danes?” another voice asked. Luke internally groaned, shifting his attention away from the annoying medic and to the man approaching. He was wearing a navy police jacket - actually, no, it was an FBI jacket. 

Luke groaned out loud. 

The FBI agent was oblivious, or maybe he was just choosing to ignore it. “I know the police already took your statement, but I wanted to thank you personally. We’ve been tracking this guy for months, and you did the community a big favor by taking him down. I’d like to thank you on behalf of-”

“You can save your speech,” Luke interrupted. He glanced across the square, to where Caesar was just entering the diner. “I’m in.”

The agent raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

Luke waved his hand around, causing the EMT to fuss over the one end of his shock blanket fluttering in the direction of the muddy ground. “Your whole recruitment pitch? I know I’ve always said no before, but I’ve changed my mind. I’ll do it. You can make me a backup agent against these types of guys. I want to make sure other people don’t get hurt.”

For a second, Luke thought the agent genuinely didn’t know what Luke was talking about, but then it seemed to click for him. “Okay,” the agent said, nodding as a small smile appeared on his face. “I’m sure someone will be in touch with you later this week. Assuming you are what you appear to be, the Bureau is always happy to recruit people like you.” 

“What do you mean, what I ‘appear’ to be? Was that little demonstration not enough for you?” Luke snapped. 

The agent didn’t get the chance to answer - he was interrupted by someone crying out “Luke!” from the other end of the square. 

Luke turned in the direction of the voice. It appeared as in they had finally let everyone else into the square, as there were regular people running in and out everywhere, but there was one woman in particular headed straight towards him. He recognized her immediately by her long, wavy red hair -  _ Rachel.  _

He took a step towards her and instinctively opened his arms, allowing her to slam into him. Rachel wrapped herself around him like a koala, pressing her face into his cheek, and Luke hugged her back, enjoyed the feeling of her warm breath on his jaw. “You’re back,” he breathed, scarcely believing it. 

“They said there was an Electrode attacking town,” she said, and the shakiness of her voice made Luke pull back to study her face. To his surprise, she looked like she’d been crying - Rachel had never cried, even when his father died, even when they’d broken up. “They said he was attacking you,” she continued breathlessly. “Luke, that man’s a murderer, he’s shocked people to death, and you were - and I couldn’t -” 

“Hey,” Luke interrupted, pulling her back into his embrace. “It’s alright, I’m fine, he couldn’t shock me. You know me, you know that.” He rested his cheek on the top of Rachel’s head - her hair was wet, from the rain, and her ever-present camera bag was missing from her back. “Rachel,” he asked softly, “what are you doing here? It’s been two years.”

“I had to see you,” she said into his shoulder, voice slightly muffled. She started shivering - although from the rain, or something else, he didn’t know. “I just finished my assignment in Ukraine. I realized I’d seen so much, but I hadn’t seen  _ you. _ I got so homesick, but Luke, it was you I missed.” She pulled her head away slightly, so she could look at him. Her brown eyes were shining. “But you were fighting that guy, and Luke, I don’t know what I would have done if…I was never able to see you again.”    


They held eye contact for a long time. Luke didn’t know exactly what he was searching for in Rachel’s eyes, because for all her faults he had fallen in love with her when he was 16 years old and _he knew her,_ he already knew her, and _he knew_ it would be so easy to fall in love with her again. 

And Luke wanted to be the kind of person his dad was, the kind of person who when they said they loved somebody, that meant they would always love them. 

Always. 

So instead of answering her, Luke leaned down and kissed her instead. 

 

* * *

Lorelai was twenty-three when she met her adult best friend: Sookie St. James, Chef extraordinaire. Despite being the youngest of all the kitchen help, Sookie was almost immediately promoted to Head Chef because her magic was pretty strong. 

It was around the time that Lorelai learned that anything Sookie Cooked was both delicious and perfectly nutritious, no matter what was in it, was about the time she stopped caring about vegetables altogether. 

Despite Sookie’s talent with food, she was a often nervous around people. As Sookie and Lorelai were each the head of different departments, and also were the same age, they got on famously. Wednesday nights, which they both had off, became their hangout night. 

“I think it’s Robert,” Sookie said one such Wednesday, resting on the couch of her small apartment with a glass of wine in one hand. “I think he’s the one who’s upset with me, and it’s making the rolls come out flat. We don’t want dense rolls, we want fluffy rolls. The negativity is affecting the yeast, which is always sentimental is this kind of humidity.”

Lorelai hummed in agreement as she continued painting her nails pink, used to Sookie’s assertions that the food has feelings by now. “Fire him,” she suggested unhelpfully. 

Sookie looked scandalized. “I can’t fire Robert!” she exclaimed. “He’s been here for ten years!”

“I’ll fire him for you,” Lorelai said, casually blowing on her fingernails to dry them. 

Sookie sighed. “I might be exaggerating a little bit,” she admitted. “Maybe I could switch some people around, take him off pasteries for a little while.” 

“You’re the boss,” Lorelai said. “Your choice.” 

A timer dinged in the kitchen. Sookie sprang up from the couch. “The lasagna!” she cried, rushing from the couch. “Scuse me, Rory-” she said, pushing the child resting on the footstool gently out of the way. Rory, who is in the process of memorizing several cookbooks, didn’t look up.    


Lorelai similarly walked around her daughter and followed Sookie into the kitchen, watching her pull out the beautiful looking dish. “That smells amazing, Sookie.”

“It looks good, too,” Sookie agreed. 

Lorelai laughed. Sookie was modest about many things, but her cooking skill wasn’t one of them. “I think you’re the best Chef in the whole world.” 

“Eh,” Sookie said, putting the lasagna down on the stove. “I can take credit for being the best Chef in Stars Hollow.”

“You’re the only Chef in Stars Hollow,” Lorelai argued. “I think.” She starting counting off the other food-serving establishments in town. “Weston’s is good, but not Chef quality, and everyone knows Al of Pancake World is an Inventor stuck in the wrong field, and there’s no one like that at Casey’s bar or Teriyaki Joe’s. Antonioli's Pizza does have a record on speed - hm, actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone was a Chef there…”

Sookie was shaking her head. “Actually, if I had competition it would be from Luke’s Diner.” 

“Luke’s?” Lorelai echoed. “There’s no way Luke is a chef. I went there once, worst food I ever tasted. I’m surprised the diner’s lasted this long.” 

“Wow,” Sookie said. “You’re not usually so harsh.”

“Luke is my arch enemy,” Lorelai said. 

Sookie rolled her eyes. “Honey, I hate to say it, but I don’t think harassing someone about putting up flyers for town festivals counts as being their ‘arch enemy’ or ‘nemesis’ or whatever you’re calling it these days. Anyway, it’s not Luke. He just apprenticed this teenager named Caesar, and that kid is brilliant.” Sookie sighed wistfully. “I tried to get him to come work for us, but it’s no good. He’s too loyal to Luke for some reason.” 

“I’m on it,” Lorelai said. “Just let me grab my coat and I’ll-”

Alarmed, Sookie grabbed her by the elbow. “No, don’t. You’ll just piss off Luke more.”

“What’s he gonna do?” Lorelai asked. “Ban me from the diner a second time?”

Lorelai does stop at Luke’s on her way to pick up Rory from school the next day, to (very calmly and civilly, she swears) ask Caesar if there was anything the Independence Inn could do to get him to reconsider their job offer. This leads to an especially loud argument with Luke when he spots her, along the general theme of “Stop harassing my employees, you’re _quadruple_ _banned_ ,” and “I was doing a very polite business call, not that you’d understand polite, you poster child for anger management issues.” 

She did not end up convincing Caesar, but she does get a nice adrenaline high from her spat with Luke that she doesn’t quite understand. (After all, she has screaming matches with her parents almost every holiday, and they do nothing but drain her. Pissing off Luke...rejuvenates her somehow, and she knows it's  _ weird,  _ ok, but while she doesn’t have men declaring their love for her left and right like they used to before she got control of her Charm, all the men she knows are usually simperingly polite to her, and Luke never is, and she loves that. Sue her). 

 

* * *

Luke is twenty-seven, and he usually gets an assignment about once a month from the FBI to go Neutralize some criminal. This means he has a pre-mission and post-mission briefing about twice a month at FBI headquarters. Usually he reports to Hartford, occasionally the smaller one in New Haven, and every once in awhile when the Bureau is gathering all their big guns Boston or New York, and notably one time in D.C. itself, where Luke was placed in a group with five other Neutrals. (It’s the most of them he’s ever met, ever.) 

However, this mission ended on a rather slushy winter Saturday in New York City, and Luke’s just helped take down this drug-ring manned mostly by Invisibles, and he’s exhausted as he doesn’t want to drive home in the slush so he drops by his sister’s apartment unannounced. 

He has to ring the buzzer five times before someone lets him in, and when he climbs the stairs up to the third floor Jess is waiting for him holding a book that’s almost bigger than his torso. “Hey, Uncle Luke,” he greets. Luke squints at him, and wonders if all 8-year-olds are this small. He thinks they are. “Mom said you’d be coming soon,” Jess adds. 

“Oh yeah?” Luke asks dryly. “When did she See that?”

“Around New Year,” Jess answers. It’s the beginning of February right now, so the dates are kind of impressive. 

Luke follows Jess inside the apartment. Liz is in the kitchen, and looks like she’s in the middle of frying some eggs. “Luke,” she says, surprised. “Did I know you were coming over? Oh, shoot, did I forget again?”     


“No, no, actually, I was just in the neighborhood,” Luke says. “Is it okay if I hang out here tonight?” 

“Sure, big brother,” she answered. “What were you doing all the way out here in New York?”

Luke leaned back on the counter next to the stove so he could watch her cook. “Just work stuff.”

“There’s diner business in New York?” Liz asked. Luke froze, unsure of how to approach his whole newfound freelance law-enforcement career until he saw her crack a smile. 

“Oh my gosh, you know!” Luke exclaimed. “You Saw it, didn’t you? You always do this.”

Liz laughed. “Kind of, big bro. I Saw a little. Did you already fight the guy that could animate mannequins?”

“Yup.”

“Yeah, then I’m basically up to speed,” Liz said. “This is awesome. You’re actually kind of a badass now.” 

_ “Liz,”  _ Luke hissed, glancing at Jess. “Do you really talk like that around him?"

“Aw, he’s out until dinner time,” Liz said, waving in Jess’s general direction. “I swear, you can’t get him to react to the outside world without physically taking the book away from him. Although, speaking of dinner, can you help me watch over his food? He read  _ Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory  _ recently and he’s in this phase where he tries to turn everything he eats to chocolate. I’m already worried he’s not getting enough exercise, without doing double damage to his diet.”

Luke snorted. “That’s a new trick. Is he powerful?”

“Eh,” Liz said. “Kind of? He can do small portions. He can’t really affect anything larger than the size of his fist.” 

“Oh, that’s good.” Luke nodded. “For his age, that’s really good.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. They stood in amicable silence for a while, until Liz said, “So, are you still dating Rachel?”

“Yeah, I’m still dating Rachel.”

“Long time, this time?”

“Two years,” Luke answered. 

“Wow,” Liz said, staring down at the eggs in the frying pan. She pursed her lips, and then blurted out, “She’s just going to leave you again.” 

Luke jumped away from the counter. “She’s _what?”_ he squawked. “No. When? No, she wouldn’t leave again. She’s different now. No. Crap. What did you See? When was it? When did you See it? Will it be soon, was it-”

“Bro, relax,” Liz interrupted. “I didn’t see anything about you two. That was just my opinion.”

“Oh, god,” Luke breathed, doubling over and resting his hand over his pounding heart. “Geez, you can’t just say things like that, Liz. Give a guy a little warning, would you?”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Look, I don’t need to be a Fortune Teller to know how it’s going to go down, Luke. It’s been going the same way ever since you were 16. You and Rachel date, Rachel leaves, you get unbearable, rinse and repeat. Two years, though - I admit, that is coming up on your high school record.”

“Shut up,” Luke snapped. “Look, I don’t blame her for going away to college, and things got a little confusing when she came back to help me after Dad passed, sure, but I don’t blame her for wanting to go  _ back  _ to college.”

“Uh huh,” Liz said, clearly not impressed. “And what about when she had graduated college, and she was all for helping you close the hardware store but suddenly the diner became real and she bolted-”

“She didn’t bolt because of the diner,” Luke argued. “If she wants a career, I’m not going to hold her back! There’s only so much photography you can do apprenticing for the studios in Hartford, and if she wants to make a name for herself, being one of those brave crazy National Geographic people, then she can.”

“Yeah,” Liz said. “So she globe trotted for a few years. What’s her story now?” 

Luke scowled. “Her story is she missed me and she loves me. What’s with the 3rd degree here?” 

Liz turned back to the stove. “It’s not the 3rd degree,” she muttered. “I just know her type, that’s all.” 

“Excuse me?!” Luke shouted. “Her  _ type!” _

“Luke, don’t shout,” Liz hissed. 

“I’m sorry, were you just implying that Rachel is anything like the bozos you hang out with?” Luke yelled, only marginally softer than he was before. “Cuz she’s not, ok? I knew we’ve gone out more than a couple times, but she’s been there for me and we care about each other and Stars Hollow is not a bad place to live! Just because you couldn't run away fast enough-”

“I’m not trying to insult your life choice, Luke!” she argued back. “I just don’t trust her!”

“Oh, come on,” Luke dismissed. “Like you’re such a great judge of character?”

Liz narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you dare make this about me. Cuz I swear if you bring up his name I will kick you out of this apartment and then Jess will be disappointed so just  _ don’t.” _

Luke bit back the  _ You trusted Jimmy _ that had been rising in his throat. She was right, he didn’t want this fight to get bitter, and what did he need Liz’s opinion on his love life for, anyways. Liz would change her mind eventually. She’d see, in the long run. 

Without saying a word Luke turned on his heel and headed into the bathroom, where he splashed water on his face. He stayed in there for a couple minutes longer than necessary, just to make sure he really had his temper under control, and then when back and sat down next to Jess on the living room floor. “Hey, kiddo,” he said, tapping on the spine of Jess’s book. The kid literally jumped. “Reading the  _ Boxcar Children _ , huh?”

“Number 46: The Chocolate Sundae Mystery,” Jess informed him, bookmarking his page.

“Ah,” Luke said. “Your mom told me about your theme.”

Jess shrugged. “Yeah, I hoped reading more about chocolate would help me turn more things. I can only do things that are already prepared food.” 

“Even Chefs can’t make food out of thin air,” Luke said. “Don’t stress about it, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jess dismissed. He was frowning in a way much to mature for his young face. 

Luke sighed. “Look, Jess. You’re just a kid. You’ll get a little more powerful when you grow up. You’re gonna be fine.”

“Sometimes I wish I was part of one of those super-families,” Jess said. “You know, the really rich ones that all marry each other and are all really powerful?”

Luke frowns. “Oh, come on. We get by. Your mom’s predictions always come true; her accuracy rating is off the charts.”

Jess snorts. “She has half an accuracy rating. She never knows when they’ll come true.”

“Yeah, well.” Luke sighs. “Don’t count your family out yet, kid.” 

Luke had never heard of anyone having more than one ability, but maybe he had a little of his mom’s Fortune-Telling in him after all. The next month, Liz reported one of her predictions to the Feds, saved the president’s life, won a Presidential Medal of Freedom, got famous via a lot of talk shows, and became friends with Oprah. 

The Bureau was happy because they could now send Luke to high profile places. Having a famous sister meant he could fit in with any blue-blood crowd. 

 

* * *

When Lorelai was twenty-five, she ran into Luke at her parent’s Christmas party, of all places. 

Well, perhaps ‘ran into’ was the wrong way the phrase it. She blamed Rory. One minute, they were partners in crime sneaking into the kitchen for more apple tarts, and the next minute Rory was going “Hey, it’s Luke!” and now here they are. 

“Hey, Luke,” Rory said, sounding very cute and friendly and nine years old. Lorelai looks in the direction her daughter is looking and - oh man, hot guy alert, there’s someone not 50 years old and who is very nicely filling out a black suit with a light green shirt underneath and - crap, did she say  _ Luke?  _

It’s hard to be mad at Rory for wanting to talk to someone at this party she actually knew, but arch-enemy-suddenly-not-flannel-wearing- _ Luke _ ?    


“Hey, Rory,” Luke said, all friendly. “What are you doing here?” He glanced around until his eyes landed on Lorelai.  “Oh,” he said, voice falling flat. “Lorelai. What are you doing here?”

“This is my grandparent’s house!” Rory chirps. 

“Yes,” Lorelai agrees, voice as flat as Luke’s has been. She makes a conscious effort wipe all thoughts of how good his shoulders looked from her memory. After all, she wouldn’t want her Charm to run away from her again. “Shocker, I know. Lorelai and Rory Gilmore at the Gilmore family Christmas party, who woulda thunk?” 

Luke visibly mouthed the word  _ ‘Gilmore _ _’_ to himself, looking puzzled. 

“What are you doing here, Luke?” Rory asked. 

“Yeah, _ Luke Danes _ ,” Lorelai added, with a little extra venom than usual, just to prove that she, the smart one, knew his last name. “And while you’re at it, how do you know my daughter?” 

He looked a little startled at the world daughter, which honestly was weird, because he’d known Lorelai and apparently Rory for a decent amount of time now. “Luke brings in pie every year to school for the special Thanksgiving lunch,” Rory answers her. “He let me read all his cookbooks last year.”

“Ah,” Lorelai said. “Your cookbook phase.”

“Knowing how to make food is an important life skill,” Rory said. She sounds like she’s parroting Sookie. 

Luke was still looking at them both, a little gobsmacked. Probably doing the math in his head, trying to narrow down how young she must have been. Lorelai narrowed her eyes. “Luke?” she questioned, trying to sound pleasant enough for Rory’s sake. 

Luke blinked. “Yeah,” he says. “Oh, I, uh, my sister is friends with some of-” he waved his hand in the general direction of the crowd. “I was actually looking for an old friend of ours, so…” he cut himself off. “Is this really your house?” 

Lorelai bristled. “This is my parent’s house.”

“We live at the Inn,” Rory offered. “We only visit a few times a year.” 

“Still,” Luke said, looking straight at Lorelai, and she could tell he’s judging her. “Explains a few things.” 

Lorelai’s heart started buzzing. It was the usual adrenaline high she gets from fighting with Luke, combined with a spike of something suspiciously close to hurt she really didn’t want to look at. She’s used to trading snide comments with Luke, but she isn't just a little rich girl, she left, she’s different now _.  _ Luke’s opinion shouldn’t matter, and she doesn’t know why it suddenly does but she does have a bit a vengeful streak and a creative mind, so-   _   
_

She double checked she wouldn’t be harming anyone else first. “Hey Luke, is Rachel here?”

Luke rubbed the back of his neck. “No,” he admitted. “She’s been out of town all week. She has some sort of gig down in Philadelphia.”

“Who’s Rachel?” Rory asked. 

“My girlfriend,” Luke answered. 

“Ooohhhh,” Rory said. “Is she pretty?”

“Very pretty,” Luke said. “But she’s also a really good photographer. And she travels to a bunch of places for work.”

“Whoa,” Rory said, sounding impressed. 

“But she left you hear all by yourself!” Lorelai exclaimed, full of dangerously fake sympathy. “Oh no, now you don’t know anyone. Let me introduce you around.”

“I’m not by myself, I told you, I’m actually trying to find someone right now-”

Paying no attention to his protests, Lorelai grabbed him by the sleeves of his jacket and hauled him into the first group of DAR ladies she saw. “Hey, Mrs. Lieberman,” Lorelai greeted perkily, smiling around at all her mother’s friends. “It’s good to see you!”

Stuffy old Mrs. Lieberman blinked. “Thank you, Lorelai,” she finally said. “Your mother has outdone herself this year.” 

“I agree,” Lorelai said, eyes bright. “I wanted to introduce you to someone. Do you know _Duke_ Danes?” Beside her, Rory giggled. 

Luke sent her a withering glare at her over Rory’s head. 

“I don’t believe I do,” Mrs. Lieberman said, studying Luke. “Duke Danes, was it? That name sounds familiar.”

Lorelai stifled her own laughter. 

Luke looked like he was trying his best to not roll his eyes and only barely succeeding. “Eliza Danes is my sister,” he admitted gruffly. 

“Oh!” Mrs. Lieberman said pleasantly. “The Fortune-Teller that’s never wrong? She’s always so lovely on the television. Are you...?”

“Well, I’m not as good at reading fortunes as my sister, but I hold my own,” Luke said modestly. Lorelai raised her eyebrows. Huh. She never would have pegged Luke for a fortune-teller, but it was certainly possible. 

“Well, it is a pleasure,” the old woman continued. “Are you here with Lorelai?”

Lorelai laughed, while Luke’s composure finally cracked and a look of horror crossed his face. “Oh, no,” he said. “No, no, definitely not. No.” He glanced over at Lorelai. “What are you laughing at?”

“Aw, Duke,” Lorelai said. “I’m only worth 5 nos?”

“It was four nos and one definitely not,” Rory corrected.      


“I’m so sorry,” Mrs. Lieberman apologized. “I didn’t mean to offend either of you.”

Lorelai waved her off. “None taken, Mrs. Lieberman. Anyways, I’m glad you could meet Duke here, he’s new to Hartford and could really use some friendly faces.” 

She could barely contain her glee as Mrs. Lieberman led Luke away to socially-induced boredom. 

“Mom?” Rory asked her, watching Luke walk away. “Are you and Luke friends? That’s why you’re teasing him like that, right?”

“We’re sort of friends,” Lorelai hummed, leading Rory back to the corner near the kitchen doors so they’d be in prime position for the next round of apple-tart snatching.  

“I hope he finds that old friend he was looking for,” Rory said thoughtfully. 

Lorelai actually enjoys the rest of the Christmas party - she doesn’t see Luke again, and her mother doesn’t say anything nasty when Lorelai announces her promotion to Assistant Manager at the inn. Also there are no magical fights for the entire evening, a first in Gilmore Christmas party history. It was nice. 

 

* * *

Luke knows that Rachel’s assignments have been getting longer, and longer, and longer still, but she’s always been good about matching her time abroad with the time she stays in Stars Hollow. When Rachel takes a month off to go work with some media company in Vancouver, she comes back and stays home for a month, just with Luke. This is all Luke can ask from her - after all, he has his own unpredictable absences for his own side job. His absences are never longer than a few days, never more than a week, but they are always last minute and he knows Rachel worries about him coming home alive. He always does, and Rachel always compromises. 

He’s twenty-nine and their fourth anniversary is coming up. He’s hesitant to call it their fourth anniversary - after all, they first kissed 13 years ago. He’s known Rachel 13 years. What the hell is he waiting for? 

Caesar’s twenty now, and only looks a little terrified when Luke announces he’s leaving Caesar in charge of the diner for the afternoon. It’s a Thursday afternoon in the middle of spring, a stereotypical sun-shining birds-chirping day, and Luke walks over to what has to be the person he talks to the most, after Rachel or Caesar. 

Bootsy laughed himself sick. 

“Are you kidding me, Danes?” he guffawed. Luke crossed his arms over his chest and glared, waiting the laughing fit out. “What do I look like, your girl scout leader?” 

“What do girl scouts have to do with engagement rings?” Luke asked. 

“Don’t you have a sister? Why don’t you ask her?” Bootsy asked. 

Luke rolled his eyes. “Liz and Rachel don’t get on too well. Now, come on. Are you going or what?” 

“No,” Bootsy said. 

“Boots-”

“No.”

“Please?”

“Do you remember when I asked you to pass me the ball in peewee soccer, and instead you kicked the ball in my face?” Bootsy asked. 

“In my defense, you were really short, and it was  _ first grade,”  _ Luke grumbled. “Come on, it’s not like I know anything about rings. All you have to do is be terribly opinionated. It’ll be just like what you’re doing now, except at a jewelers.”

“Just base it on her other jewelry,” Bootsy suggested. 

“Rachel doesn’t wear jewelry!” Luke said, frustrated. 

“None?”

“None!” Luke said. “Unless you count her camera neck-strap. I’m telling you, I tried to pick by myself the other day. I walked in, and the guy at the counter asked me ‘silver or gold or platinum,’ and then I walked right out.” 

“I can see why the menu at the diner is so sparse, seeing as you’re so overwhelmed by choices,” Bootsy commented. “Three whole things? What do you choose?” 

“Shut up,” Luke told him. “Just - would you?” 

Bootsy narrowed his eyes. “Fine,” he said. “But only for Rachel’s sake. And only because you really are hopeless.” 

“Thank you,” Luke said. “I can drive.” 

As they approached Luke’s truck, Bootsy added, “But I am not going to be your best man.”

“I didn’t ask you to be my best man,” Luke said. “Don’t worry, I won’t even invite you to the wedding.”

“Are you shitting me?” he asked. “I’m picking out the ring you’re going to propose to Rachel with and you aren’t even inviting me to the wedding?” 

“You’re not picking out the ring, I just need a sounding board,” Luke said. 

Bootsy was shaking his head. “Aw, who am I kidding. I’ll probably have to be your best man. Even I don’t hate you enough to stick you with Kirk.”

“Kirk?” Luke asked, mildly offended. “Why on earth would you think my default would be Kirk?”

“It’s not like you talk to anyone else,” Bootsy pointed out. 

“I talk to people,” Luke said. 

“Name one friend.” 

“Caesar,” Luke said. “Caesar and I are friends. We see each other all the time.”

“Caesar is your employee,” Bootsy said. “You literally pay him to talk to you.” 

“Jess,” Luke named. 

“Who the hell is Jess?”

“My nephew.”

Bootsy rolled his eyes. “Liz’s kid?” he scoffed. “Jess is three years old, Danes.”

“He’s ten,” Luke answered, aware that this was not much better. 

“He’s ten? Already?” Bootsy made a face. “You’re going to make a ten-year-old your best man?”

“I’m not talking about this anymore,” Luke said. 

When they got to the store, Bootsy said, “This better not be like the coffee thing all over again.” 

“There was no coffee thing,” Luke said. “Shut up.” 

“It took you two years of handing me identical cups for you to settle down on a recipe.” 

“Well, now I have great coffee at the diner,” Luke said. “No one can argue with me now.”

“Oh god,” Bootsy drawled. “This is the coffee thing all over again.”

It took a few hours, but they managed to find the perfect ring for Rachel (a solid-looking platinum, because apparently they were the sturdiest, with a reasonable-sized diamond). Bootsy had even talked him into into getting some insurance, in case Rachel wanted to exchange the ring or something. 

He was still daydreaming about the way Rachel would most like him to propose when he got the page from the Bureau - a Speedster had robbed a bank in Newfoundland and had fled to the States. Luke hid the ring box behind a bunch of his old high school trophies that were still on the shelf, left Rachel a note on the kitchen table, told Caesar to lock up and hang the ‘Gone Fishing’ sign at the end of his shift, and left for the high-Speed chase.  

 

* * *

Lorelai was running out of the wedding tent the Inn had set up for the big wedding going on in the afternoon when she tripped over what she’d thought had been flat ground, but turned out to be their photographer. 

Lorelai was on the ground wheezing for a few seconds before she figured out what happened. “Oh my god,” she said hoarsely. “I am so sorry, I just didn’t see you there.” 

“No, don’t apologize,” said the photographer, who was still crouching on the ground. “You’re the one that went flying.” 

Lorelai gingerly stood up and wiped the dirt from her knees. “It’s Rachel, right?” 

“That’s me,” she said, standing up and reaching out to shake Lorelai’s hand. “Please forgive me, I don’t remember your name, I met so many Independence people this last week.”

Lorelai laughed. “No problem, I’m Lorelai Gilmore.”

“You know, that actually sounds familiar,” Rachel pondered, fiddling with the camera in her hands. 

Lorelai looked down, blushing a little. “Yeah, we actually met a few years ago, through Luke. I’m on the Town Decoration Committee, and...”

“Say no more,” Rachel said.    


She smiled. “In my defense, I decorate for a living,” Lorelai said, gesturing to the wedding tent. “I’m the assistant manager here, and this is really my first big event. I’ve been running around like a headless chicken.” 

“Well, it looks wonderful,” Rachel said. “I’ve gotten some great stuff.”

“Thank you,” Lorelai acknowledged. “Although - just to be fair, this isn’t the first big event at the Independence. Not even the first big event recently, I’ve been assistant manager for a year. I just meant that this is  _ my  _ first big event, that I’m running. Which is probably why I tripped over you. Not that would trip over people during every event that I run - man, I’m just rambling here. Feel free to just stick out your leg and trip me back, I could use it.” 

Rachel smiled. “No hard feelings,” she promised. “It really does look good. And I haven’t heard a good ramble in a while, so please. You’re actually helping, I could use a refill.”

Lorelai giggled nervously.  “Okay, here’s a good one for you. You know the feeling when you’ve been working really hard for something, something you’ve been worrying about a long time, and then it finally happens?”

Rachel froze. “I guess,” she said. 

“I just bought a house for me and my daughter,” Lorelai said, a smile breaking out over her face. “We’d been living in this really tiny one-room place, and I was always so worried that because she wasn’t in a proper house child protective services would come, or she would resent me for it, or we’d run out of room, but I did it. I saved up all my spare change and - it’s just a crappy little fixer-upper, really, but it’s good, and it finally happened. And now here at work I finally got my own event assignment here, and - well, I can’t stop working hard now.” 

_ Click.  _

Lorelai blinked. She hadn’t even noticed Rachel lifting the camera. 

“Sorry,” Rachel said. “Your eyes were just lighting up.” 

“Thank you,” Lorelai said, still a little startled. She took a deep breath. “Moral of the story is, things are going great, and I’m good. Despite my apparently clumsiness. I’m sorry for tripping over you again. I’ve heard great things about your work. Take all the pictures you want.”

Rachel wiggled her camera. “Can’t stop working hard now,” she quoted. 

Lorelai smiled. “That’s right. Now, I’m so sorry, but I really do have to check in with the kitchen staff.” 

“Of course,” Rachel said. “I’ll be...here.” 

 

* * *

Luke got home late Saturday night - it had taken his team a little longer than expected to close in on the Speedster close enough for Luke to Neutralize his powers, but they’d done it. Luke was dropped off back in Stars Hollow.     


He poked around the diner downstairs for a few minutes called Caesar to let him know that the diner would reopen tomorrow, confirming that Caesar could come in for the afternoon shift. Humming happily to himself, he then hopped up the stairs to the apartment. 

“Ah, jeez, did something explode in here?” he asked after opening the door. There were clothes strewn everywhere. All the cabinets in the kitchen were open, the dishes sorted into random piles on the counter. 

Rachel skidded out of the bathroom in her socks. “Luke!” she exclaimed, reaching out a hand towards him. “You’re...”

“I’m home,” he finished for her, reaching out to grab her hand with his, but she retracted her hand suddenly. 

“Home,” she said. “Right.” She turned around and headed back into the bathroom. 

Luke followed her, leaning against the doorframe and watching as she made a mess of the medicine cabinet. “Rachel, are you okay?” he asked, watching as she put his shaving cream, mouthwash, and comb in the sink, and then deliberated over a box of floss, which she eventually lined up her the faucet next to her toothbrush and foundation. 

“There’s not enough room in here,” she muttered to herself. 

“Room?” Luke echoed. Sure, the bathroom was small, and, well, the whole apartment was too, really, but when he looked around the room a second time he noticed a few dark suitcases dark suitcases under all the mess. “Rachel,” Luke said slowly, concern bleeding into his voice. “Are you packing?”

“As a matter of fact, I am,” Rachel answered. With one arm, she slid all of the things she’d designated as top-of-the-counter into a plastic bag, and brushed by Luke to get back into the main room. 

“Well, ok,” Luke said, still leaning against the doorframe. “Is it a big project?”

Rachel laughed; it wasn’t her regular, large and sparkling laugh, but a small and breathy unnerving one. “The biggest,” she answered. “When did I get this much stuff?”

Luke blinked. “Yeah, stuff tends to accumulate,” he said. “Rachel, are you ok?”

“And how does so much stuff fit in such a tiny apartment?” she asked, leaning down to stuff the bathroom-bag into a suitcase. “I mean, this is a tiny apartment. This is a postage stamp. How have we lived here all these years?”

“Well, we’re not going to live here forever,” Luke said. 

Rachel stopped. She actually looked up at him. “We’re not?” she asked. 

“Of course not,” he said. “I’ve thought about buying us a house someday. I just thought we were okay living here for a while, while I saved up some money.” 

Something in Rachel’s face fell. “Oh,” she said. “A house. Somewhere around town, probably?”

Luke hated the disappointed look on her face. He would do anything to fix it for her. “We have options,” he told her. “As long as it’s somewhere close enough I can still get to work, but we have some options.”

“Right,” Rachel said, voice flat. “Work.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Luke asked, defensive. 

“The diner work?” she asked. “Or your secret work?” 

“The diner,” he said. “Of course, the diner. Is this what this is about? I can ask to go on less missions, I-”

“No, Luke,” Rachel interrupted. “That’s not what this is about. Don’t get me wrong, it is hard sometimes, you going out twice a month on these missions, with no idea of when you’ll be back or what condition you’ll be in-”

“I’m fine,” Luke said. “I’m perfectly healthy. Barely a scratch. You don’t have to worry about me, I promise.”

Rachel swallowed and turned back to her packing. “I’m glad you get to have your adventures,” she said thickly. 

Luke took a tentative step forward. “Well, they’ve been helping with the money,” he offered. 

“Right,” she said. “The house money. When were you going to buy us this house, Luke?”

“I didn’t have any definite plans,” he said. Seeing her like this was putting him on edge, but he tried desperately to push it down. He was fine, Rachel was fine, their relationship was  _fine._ “But...you know, probably when we get married.” 

Rachel slammed the one suitcase shut. “So now you want to get married,” she snapped, avoiding his eyes. 

Luke took the risk and took the few steps over to the bookshelf, where the level holding all his high school trophies was thankfully intact. “Rachel,” he said, swiping up the ring box and clutching it in his hand.  God, he was nervous. “I’ve always wanted to get married.” 

Her back was to him, zipping up another bag full of kitchenware. She was silent. 

Rachel had always the braver one out of the two of them, but Luke summoned all his courage now and followed her into the kitchen. He knew she was sometimes impatient, but he wasn’t going to make her wait anymore. 

“If you want,” Luke said solemnly, dropping to one knee as gracefully as he could, “we can start looking at houses as soon as you say yes.”

Still facing away from him, Rachel laughed bitterly. “Look, I don’t want a hou-” She turned, stopping dead when she saw him. Her mouth dropped open in shock. 

“Rachel,” Luke said, calling up all the ideas that had been floating in his head for months now. “I love you. You are the only woman I have ever loved, and you’re the one I want to love for the rest of my life. You’ve been here for all the hard times, and I know I could never in a million years deserve you, but I promise - if you’ll have me - that I will be here for you, too. I will always be here. I will never leave you. I will never even think about leaving you. I couldn’t imagine a life without you in it. Now Rachel, please. Will you marry me?” 

“No,” she said. 

Luke blinked. 

She didn't say anything else. 

"Why?" he asked, voice cracking. 

“I’m not as good a person as you think I am, Luke,” she said. 

“Whatever it is, I don’t care,” he said desperately. “Whatever it is that’s bothering you, Rachel, we can fix it. I can fix it! Just tell me what it is, and I’ll-”

“No, you can’t,” she interrupted. 

Luke took a deep breath. “I love you,” he said simply. “Rachel, please.”

“I never got to have my adventures,” she said. 

“What?” 

For a second, Luke thought Rachel was starting to cry, but then she took a deep breath. That was good, that was like Rachel. Rachel never cried. “Luke,” she said evenly. “I’m not that selfless. I - I put my life on hold for you. So many times. When your dad died, when you took this crazy dangerous new job-”

“It’s not crazy dangerous!” Luke argued, and god, he was arguing the wrong point, he always argued the wrong point, this was the Liz and  _ Mom always knew  _ all over again. The world was ending all over again.  


“And I can’t deal with it anymore,” Rachel said. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life worrying about you and doing nothing else. I understand you want to save the world. Luke, I want to do the same thing, but I’m just a photographer. I can’t see the world from Stars Hollow.” 

“So what,” Luke asked. His voice was shaking. “I’m not enough for you?”

“Luke,” she said. “If you weren’t an FBI agent, if you just had your boring, same-thing-every-week diner and that was it, would I be enough for you?” 

“Of course,” Luke answered. He swallowed. “Rachel, I’ll quit.” 

“I don’t want you to quit,” she told him. 

“Then what do you want?” 

“I want to see how far I could go if there was nothing holding me back,” she told him. “Luke, I’m a good photographer, and I’m still young. I can still have my adventures.” 

“I hold you back,” Luke echoed hollowly. 

“I can’t stop working hard now,” Rachel said softly.

Luke snapped the ring box closed, and jumped to his feet. “I gotta go, ” he snapped. “Leave forever, have your adventures, whatever. I’ll give you a few days to clear out. If you could tell Caesar that the diner will be closed tomorrow after all, that’d be great.” 

“I’m so sorry, Luke,” Rachel blurted out. “I love you, I swear. I just need this for me.” 

“I’m sorry too,” Luke said, hand on the doorknob. “Look, I - I won’t ever forget what you did for me. You were there-”

“Luke-”

“But I don’t deserve you,” he finished, and slammed the apartment door behind him.

 

* * *

When Lorelai was twenty-six years old, she let it slip to Sookie that she hadn’t gotten laid in ten years, and now, well, here she was. 

On a date. 

The guy Sookie had set her up with wasn’t nearly as bad as she had feared, though. His name was David, and he was an old culinary school classmate of Sookie’s, and now worked as a Sue Chef at a fancy restaurant in Hartford she had been to a few times as a child. He took her to dinner and a movie, and they spent the entire drive home singing the  _ Mission Impossible  _ theme song in his car. He was funny, and goofy, handsome, and despite all her misgivings about dating she could feel herself relaxing and enjoying the date. Rory was ten years old now. Maybe she could have a dating life, after all. 

When David proposed to her at the beginning of her second date, she fled the restaurant and took a cab from Hartford all the way to Stars Hollow, straight to Sookie’s place. And then the two of them went straight to Casey’s bar. 

“Damn it, I liked him,” Lorelai kept say to Sookie, over and over and over. “Why did I have to Charm him? Why? I mean, I know I was flirting, but you’re supposed to flirt on a date. ” 

“Maybe he’s just naturally over-eager?” Sookie suggested. 

Lorelai snorted. “Nope. I did this to him. I laid it on way too think, and now I have to back away before he snaps out of it and presses charges for stealing or something.” 

“He wouldn’t do that,” Sookie said. Lorelai took another shot. 

It was a good thing Rory was spending the night with Lane, because Lorelai didn’t prevent herself from having an alcohol-encouraged meltdown. 

“Lorelai, honey,” Sookie said as she watched Lorelai take her 6th shot in 20 minutes. “Maybe you should slow down?”

“I will not,” Lorelai declared, signalling the bartender for another. She took a sip of the water Sookie had ordered for her, just in case. “I never had any of those wild early twenty experiences, and as I will never be able to date men ever, I can sure get trashed in a bar.” 

“Don’t say that,” Sookie ordered. “You said it took you a little practice to get used to talking to male employees, it’ll just take a little practice with this, too.”

“You don’t understand,” Lorelai said miserably, eying the bartender fill her shot glass  “I wasn’t even trying to Charm him. I never am. It just  _ happens.” _

“You’ll get better.”

“Sookie, it’s too dangerous!” Lorelai cried. “I can’t - I’m in the criminal database, you know. Government took my fingerprints and everything. My magic levels are too high to be left alone.” She took the shot, feeling Sookie’s concerned gaze on her. “There’s a database for everyone who’s abilities are too high, but I have a special little asterisk next to my name, because I especially have a history with lack of control.” 

“You do not,” Sookie cried. “Lorelai, you have the most self-control of anyone I’ve ever met. You do everything for Rory. You don’t-”

“How do you think I got Rory, Sookie,” Lorelai said, pushing back the uncomfortable tears. “My parents got the police to let me off my criminal charges, but I know the truth. I thought Rory’s dad and I were on the same page, but it turns out he never really even liked me at all, let alone loved me. Isn’t that funny?” She took another sip of her water. 

“You were sixteen and in love,” Sookie said gently. “Lorelai, honey. There was really no harm done.” 

“No harm done?” Lorelai repeated shakily. “Tell that to my parents, or Christopher’s parents, or my fatherless child.” 

“How about we get you home,” Sookie suggested. 

It was only about 7:30 when they got back to the Inn, and Lorelai persuaded Sookie that they could keep drinking with the bottle of wine she’d been saving for special occasions. She thought Sookie only agreed because Lorelai almost cut her thumb trying to work the corkscrew herself. 

“I’m sorry I’m being depressing,” Lorelai told Sookie later, once she was thoroughly trashed. “I thought I’d given up on the hope of finding the right guy one day a long time ago, but I guess not.”

“It’s okay,” Sookie said. She’d given up trying to correct Lorelai. “One meltdown in three years is manageable.” 

“If I were a lesbian, I definitely would have Charmed you by now,” Lorelai slurred. 

“If I were also a lesbian, you wouldn’t have needed to,” Sookie replied. “People love you for more than just your Charm, Lorelai.” 

“I know, Sookie,” Lorelai answered her. She fell asleep thinking,  _ but no man ever will.  _

 

* * *

 

It was about one in the morning when he got to Liz’s place in New York City. Or, as he discovered after ringing the buzzer ten times only to receive a very crabby response from a stranger, Liz’s old place in New York City. 

Scowling, Luke made his way to a pay-phone down the block and dialed the forwarding number the poor awakened strangers given him. The call eventually went to voicemail. “Hey, Liz, I  _ found  _ your new number,” Luke said, knowing he was being too sarcastic but he was a little too emotional to care. “Turns out you’ve moved! I’m outside your old apartment building now, guess I drove to New York for nothing-”

The phone clicked. “Uncle Luke?” 

“Jess?” Luke said, surprised. 

“You’re in New York?”

Luke took a deep breath. He really didn’t want to let out his negativity in front of his young nephew. “Yes,” he answered. “I am in New York.” 

“Huh,” Jess said. “I didn’t know you’d be coming by.”

“It was. Spontaneous,” Luke ground out. 

There was an awkward silence on the phone. 

“Can I have your new address?” Luke asked.    


“Sure,” Jess said. “We’re in Queens now.”

“Queens?” Luke asked. “What happened to Brooklyn?”

“Ask mom,” Jess muttered. 

After another 20 minutes of trying to find the right place and asking multiple 24-hour minimart workers for directions, Luke finally made it to Liz and Jess’s new place. In Queens. 

“I’m sorry if I woke you up,” Luke said as Jess let him into the apartment. 

“I wasn’t really sleeping,” Jess said. 

“Oh,” Luke said. He looked around the apartment; almost all the lights were on. “Which room is your mom’s?”

Jess pointed, but then he said, “Mom isn’t home right now.”

Luke frowned. “What do you mean, she isn’t home right now?”

“She’s out for the weekend,” Jess grumbled. 

“Out for the  _ weekend?”  _ Luke repeated.

“Yeah, she left Friday night, she’ll be back tomorrow, probably-”

“She left you alone by yourself for an entire weekend?!”

Jess scowled. He was probably overtired, being up at 2 in the morning. “I can take care of myself,” he barked. “It’s not like I leave the apartment.” 

“You’re only ten years old,” Luke said incredulously. 

“I’m old enough,” Jess said. 

Luke looked down at his nephew. He was definitely bigger than he used to be, but still he only came up to about Luke’s elbows, maybe less. Ten years old was too young to leave a kid alone for a whole weekend, right? Maybe an afternoon, but not three nights. 

“Jess, do you want to go fishing?” Luke asked. 

“What?” Jess asked. 

“You know, get out of the apartment a little,” Luke said. “You shouldn’t have to spend all your time outside of school cooped up. I promise to have you back home by tomorrow night. This would only take a few hours.”

“Fishing?” Jess repeated skeptically. He looked down at the ground. “I don’t know anything about fishing.”

“You can just sit and read while I fish,” Luke offered. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Jess hesitated. “Maybe. When do you want to go?”

“Now,” Luke said. 

“Now?” Jess repeated. “It’s nighttime!” 

“It’ll take us a little bit to drive back to Connecticut to get my fishing gear,” Luke said. “You’re supposed to fish early in the morning, anyways. Around sunrise.” 

“Connecticut?” Jess repeated. Luke strained his memory to try and remember the last time Jess had been to Connecticut. Not since he was a baby, Luke thought. That he knew of. 

“Grab an extra jacket and a book or two,” Luke said. 

Jess wavered. “I don’t think I’m supposed to leave the house.”

Luke held up his hands. “I can just leave if you don’t want to, that’s-”

“No,” Jess interrupted, surprising Luke. Jess looked at his uncle, and then down at the floor again. “You don’t have to leave,” he said quietly, toeing the floor. “We can go fishing, if you want.”    


It was that moment that Luke realized what he was doing, showing up at his kid nephew’s place at crazy hours of the night, trying to convince a kid to leave without his mom’s permission to somewhere he’s never been before, to do something he’s never done before. And then threatening to abandon this kid yet again to an empty apartment. “You know what, Jess?” Luke asked. “You’re right, it is nighttime. I’m sorry.”

Jess looked up, eyes wide. He looked surprised.    


“I shouldn’t be dragging you away,” Luke continued. “I - I just had a long day, I’m a little keyed up. Is it okay if I stay here and rest?”

Jess nodded, and cautiously said, “It’s okay, Uncle Luke.” 

“Thanks,” he answered. “Do you guys still have a spare bedroom in this place?”

The spare room turned out to be Liz’s “study” and not a guest bedroom this time, but they did have a decently sized couch. Jess was grabbed Luke a pillow when he asked, “Was it your job? You know, your special job? Did a bad guy get away?”

Luke hesitated for a second, and then nodded. Jess had only met Rachel once or twice, but he knew she existed, and he really didn’t want to have that conversation right now. “Yeah,” Luke echoed. “She got away for good.” 

 

* * *

  
After a full day of cleaning Liz’s apartment, going out with Jess to the bookstore, and stocking up the fridge with lots of premade meals, Luke left New York about 20 minutes before his sister was supposed to get home. The gone fishing sign was hanging on the diner door. Rachel was gone.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this came out so angsty but it should be cheering up soon. Please let me know what you think!


End file.
